Wine of the Day #35: Stellenzicht “no added sulphur” Chardonnay 2009

How much? R90;
Where? Stellenzicht, Stellenrust Road Helderberg, 27 (0)21 880 1103;
Why? Stellenzicht farm is one vertex of the Golden Triangle, the Stellenbosch analogue of the heroin producing poppy fields of Southeast Asia but even more dangerous, according to Professor David Nutt (chairman of Britain’s Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs) who raised a few eyebrows in November when he claimed that alcohol is worse than heroin and crack cocaine and is in fact three times worse than cancer sticks and plain old toilet seat cocaine.

Although vino is a crazed killer to health Nazis and Cape Town city councilors, this one from Guy Webber is less dangerous than most as it has a total sulphur content of six parts per million and so is far healthier than German eggs with their high dioxin content. On the subject of eggs, this wine is a bit of a curate’s: abundant tropical fruit on the nose with a deciduous apples and pears palate.

Guy Webber

Guy Webber

With dioxin the new flavour in European eggs, it is pleasing to note that Guy uses bentonite rather than egg whites to fine his wines and he filters it too, as lacking the preservative effects of sulphur, cleanliness really is next to godliness. The flavours are rich and multilayered and you’d swear there was some barrel maturation if Guy didn’t tell you he’d left the wine on its lees for a year.

Rating: ****
s1
*****: Malawi cob
****: Swazi gold
***: Durban poison
**: Bellville boom
*: Paris Hilton